Revolut rolls out facial recognition checkouts

Revolut co-founder and CEO, Nik Storonsky, has often boasted about his plans to take Revolut from a private tech start-up to a banking giant with technology so advanced, other banks would not be able to compete.

In just over a year after receiving its full banking license, Revolut has done just that being the first UK bank to roll out biometric payments, allowing you to make payments at a store using facial recognition only.

I was invited to demo the system – Pay with Smile – at a nearby coffee shop in London. The face recognition technology requires a customer to simply look at a camera at the till point, smile, and ‘kerching’. I was told you don’t have to smile if you’re not the smiley type, but you do have to be moving to ensure the camera is capturing a real person and not just a photo of one.

“And what if you have a twin?” I asked. Revolut said the technology is advanced enough to know the difference between them, recognising distinctive features in movement.

A Revolut colleague guided me through the system. He ordered a coffee, looked into a camera at the till, and in around 3 seconds his payment was made. There is no need to have a phone, card or wallet at hand – and in fact, your phone could be home.

Alex Codina, general manager of merchant payments at Revolut Business, said: “By combining high-performance processing with facial recognition technology, we’ll replace outdated, fragmented tills with a hyper-efficient checkout experience designed to solve consumer and merchant pain points.”

Revolut claims merchants lose around £2,500 a year in technical glitches and that its advanced technology can help avoid losses caused by terminal outages.

For its banking customers, it claims it offers a speedy way to pay, and perfect for when you are out for a run perhaps and choose not to take your phone, forget it, or want a stress free way to pay without digging out your phone from your bag.

Revolut has started the roll out this week, but is yet to announce which retailers will be adopting this new technology.

Would you pay with facial recognition?

If you have a modern smartphone, then you are no stranger to facial recognition technology. But while you may happily use it to unlock your device and open apps, using your face to pay at stores may feel futuristic.

As you may expect, my first question to Revolut was over safety. Sharing biometrics over till points feels risky and could possibly leave you vulnerable to hackers, but Revolut assured me that no data is stored and staff at till points cannot access the information. It comes with high level banking security and similar technology used in Apple products.

I felt safe with this new advanced tech, but whether it is the future of payments is yet to be seen. Merchants would need to purchase a Revolut register, which is being offered at 0% processing fees. But, while it may feel attractive to small independent retailers like Kiss the Hippo, the coffee store where the biometric payments are available, the real game changer will be when the likes of Tesco or Sainsbury’s adopt the system.

Who can use biometric payments?

If you have a Revolut account, you can use facial recognition payments where available.

You do not have to have a premium Revolut account, but you must opt in and scan a QR code at the store for first time use, after which you can be phone-less.

There are no costs to use it, but you may be limited to purchases of up to £200 and there will be times when you have a pin prompt, but you do this on the merchant’s screen and do not need your contactless device at hand.

While I was impressed with the tech, I’d like to hear what you think.